At a glance
- School districts and administrators can provide a clear vision for parent engagement—for instance, in school health activities.
- Administrators can get input from parents on how they would like to be involved in the school's health activities.
- Administrators can then develop a program for parent engagement in the schools.
Overview
Parent engagement in schools is defined as parents and school staff working together to support and improve the learning, development, and health of children and adolescents.
Did you know?
Why it's important
Parent engagement in schools contributes to students' health and learning. Studies have shown that students who have parents engaged in their school lives are more likely to have:
- Higher grades and test scores.
- Better student behavior.
- Enhanced social skills.
In addition, students who have parents engaged in their school lives are less likely to:
- Smoke cigarettes.
- Drink alcohol.
- Become pregnant.
- Be physically inactive.
- Be emotionally distressed.
Important factors
Research shows the primary reason that parents get involved is believing that their actions will improve their children's learning and well-being.
Research also shows parents tend to be more involved if they perceive school staff and students want and expect their involvement.
To increase parent engagement in school health, schools must:
- Make a positive connection with parents.
- Provide a variety of activities and frequent opportunities to fully engage parents.
- Work with parents to sustain their engagement by addressing the common challenges to getting and keeping parents engaged.
Common questions
What actions school districts and administrators can support?
Following are strategies and actions school districts and administrators can take to support parent engagement in school health.
- Ensure the school or district has a clear vision for parent engagement—including engaging parents in school health.
- Ensure that school staff are able to connect with parents and support parent engagement in school health activities.
- Consider asking District and School Health Councils to ask parents how they want to be involved in school health activities, services, and programs.
- Have a well-planned program for parent engagement in the school.
- Provide parenting support by building parents' knowledge, leadership, and decision-making skills. This enables parents to: support positive health attitudes and behaviors among students; and help build healthy home and school environments.
- Communicate with parents. Establish clear communication channels between parents and school staff.
- Provide a variety of volunteer opportunities. As volunteers, parents can enrich health and physical education classes, improve health services delivery, and help create safe and healthy environments for students.
- Support learning at home. Engage parents and students in health education activities at home.
- Encourage parents to be part of planning and decision making in schools. Include parents in planning for special health-related events, school decisions, school activities, and advocacy activities. Parent involvement can be through the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), school health council, school action teams, and other school groups.
- Collaborate with the community to coordinate information, resources, and services. Work with community-based organizations, businesses, cultural and civic organizations, social service agencies, faith-based organizations, health clinics, colleges and universities, and other community groups that can benefit students and families.
a Epstein JL, Sanders MG, Sheldon S, et al. School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action. 4th ed. Corwin Press; 2018.
- Appoint a dedicated team or committee that oversees parent engagement.
- Identify challenges that keep parents from being connected and engaged in school health activities.
- Work with parents to tailor school events and activities to address those challenges.
Approaches to make improvements
It's a team effort to improve parent engagement in school health. It involves the school community as well as individuals, groups, and organizations outside of the school. It also requires:
- Convincing these stakeholders of the importance of parent engagement in helping students learn and be healthy.
- Involving stakeholders in the development, implementation, and evaluation of these actions.
- Securing stakeholders' buy-in to ensure that parent engagement happens.
Some of the strategies and actions described above require small changes that can be done relatively easily in the short term. Other broader, longer-term actions might require administrative or budgetary changes. Schools and school districts should consider the school's needs and available resources to determine which actions are most feasible and appropriate.